Pope makes historic visit to Lampedusa – Africa’s gateway to Europe – and says ‘we have forgotten how to cry’ for the migrants lost at sea trying to reach Italy

n he became Pope, he said he wanted a ‘poor church for the poor’.

And Pope Francis certainly seems to practise what he preaches, as his first official visit outside Rome has been to a Sicilian island to pray for migrants who have died trying to reach Italy to forge a better life for themselves.

Francis’ choice of Lampedusa for his first official trip outside Rome is highly symbolic for the new pontiff, who has placed the poor and dispossessed at the centre of his papacy and has urged the Church to return to its mission of serving them.

Pope Francis is seen inside his car after he urged other priests to not drive flashy cars as it ‘pains him’ to see them spending so much money.

And on arrival, he attacked what he calls the ‘globalisation of indifference’ that greets migrants who risk their lives trying to reach a better life in Europe.

Francis travelled to the tiny island of Lampedusa to meet with migrants who reached Italy from Africa and pray for those who died trying.

During a Mass on Lampedusa’s main sports field, he lamented that we all ‘have forgotten how to cry’ for migrants lost at sea.

He also denounced smugglers who take advantage of migrants’ poverty to get rich by transporting them to Italy on overcrowded boats.

Francis, whose own ancestors immigrated to Argentina from Italy, travelled to the farthest reaches of Italy to draw attention to the plight of migrants and the need to offer them a life of dignity.

Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he is driven through the crowd during his visit to the island of Lampedusa

Pope Francis kisses a child during his visit to Lampedusa. He travelled to the tiny Sicilian island to pray for migrants lost at sea

He laid a wreath in the port in memory of the thousands of migrants from Africa who have died trying to reach the tiny Sicilian island in unsafe and overcrowded boats.

Thousands of banner-waving islanders welcomed Francis at the port where he arrived aboard a coast guard vessel accompanied by a flotilla of fishing boats.

He spoke with some young African migrants in T-shirts before heading off to celebrate mass.

At the mass, in the field which served as a reception centre for thousands who fled Arab Spring unrest in North Africa in 2011, he used a wooden chalice carved out of the wood of a migrant boat by a local carpenter.

Christopher Hein, director of the Italian Council for Refugees, told the Catholic newspaper Avvenire the pope’s visit was ‘an extremely important gesture’ that would help keep attention on the migrant issue.

Only 113 kilometres (70 miles) from Tunisia, Lampedusa, a sleepy island which normally lives off fishing and tourism, has become one of the main points of entry into Europe for poor and desperate migrants willing to risk the crossing in overcrowded and unsafe fishing vessels and small boats.

Francis came to pray with survivors of the treacherous crossing from Africa and mourn those who have died trying

Pope Francis, right, boards an Italian Coast Guard boat upon his arrival. This first official trip outside Rome is highly symbolic for the new pontiff, who has placed the poor and dispossessed at the centre of his papacy

Pope Francis prays after throwing a wreath of flowers into the sea in memory of migrants who never arrived to Lampedusa

Thousands are known to have died over the years and unknown numbers of others are presumed lost without trace.

The visit to Lampedusa is designed to be sober in tone, in keeping with the pope’s drive to get past the upheavals of recent years.

Since succeeding Pope Benedict in March, the former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina has eschewed some of the more ostentatious trappings of his office.

On Saturday Pope Francis said it pained him to see priests driving flashy cars, and told them to pick something more ‘humble’.

As part of his drive to make the Catholic Church more austere and focus on the poor, Francis told young and trainee priests and nuns from around the world that having the latest smartphone or fashion accessory was not the route to happiness.

‘It hurts me when I see a priest or a nun with the latest model car, you can’t do this,” he said.

Islanders welcomed Francis at the port where he arrived aboard a coast guard vessel accompanied by a flotilla of fishing boats

The visit to Lampedusa is designed to be sober in tone, in keeping with the pope’s drive to get past the upheavals of recent years

‘A car is necessary to do a lot of work, but please, choose a more humble one.

‘If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world,’ he said.

His official car is a distinctly understated Ford Focus.

He caused a stir when he refused to wear opulent papal clothing choosing an iron cross instead of gold and elected to stick with his battered old black shoes instead of papal red.

He then refused to move into the vast papal apartments occupied by his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI.

Francis has opted to live instead in a simple residence for visiting priests, where he dines alongside church men from all over the world and gives a daily mass at which he has repeated his calls for ‘a poor church’.

In June, he launched a stinging attack on the ‘culture of waste’ today and said throwing good food away is like stealing from the poor.

The pope made the comments during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square and criticised the culture of an increasingly consumerist world.

‘Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry.’

The comments were one of his many calls for greater social responsibility among the world’s 1.2billion Roman Catholics.

The Argentinian-born pontiff warned that too much focus on money and materialism meant financial market dips were viewed as tragedies while human suffering had become normal and ignored.